"The hand trench exposed the actual fault that moved during the earthquake," he said.

"It appeared as a line going down the side of the trench.

"That was the actual movement plane that caused the shaking that was experienced."

Dr Clark says the people of Ernabella, about 30 kilometres south of the Northern Territory border and 1,400 kilometres by road from Adelaide, wanted answers from the scientists.

"They were asking us for our interpretation of what happened out there," he said.

"The really encouraging thing is the traditional owner we took out, Peter Yuningoo, he has a story now which is as best as we could communicate to him that he is now disseminating around the community.